List of University at Albany people

• Frances Dorothy Acomb, historian
• Manuel Alvar (1977–1998), head of the Spanish Royal Academy; known for his linguistic atlases of Spain and Spanish South America
• Branka Arsić, scholar of American literature, won the Modern Language Association's James Russell Lowell Prize in 2016^[38]
• Gonzalo Torrente Ballester (1966–70), Spanish novelist (1910–1999); won Cervantes Prize in 1985
• Judith R. Baskin, University of Oregon associate dean for Humanities, director of the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies, and the Philip H. Knight Professor of Humanities^[39]
• Ronald A. Bosco (1975–present), Distinguished University Professor of English & American Literature (2004), SUNY Distinguished Service Professor (1992); president, Association for Documentary Editing; general editor of The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harvard; has edited, co-edited (primarily with Joel Myerson), and authored over 20 volumes on Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Michael Wigglesworth, and Cotton Mather
• Don Byrd (1971–present), poet and literary critic; works include his poetry collection Technics of Travel, the book-length poems The Great Dimestore Centennial and Aesop's Garden, an analysis of Charles Olson's Maximus, and his masterpiece of literary analysis The Poetics of Common Knowledge
• JoAnne Carson, painter and sculptor, Guggenheim Fellow (2016)
• Alan S. Chartock, political scientist and radio personality
• Sarah Blacher Cohen, writer, scholar, playwright, and professor^[40]
• John Frederick Dewey (1971–1982), British structural geologist widely regarded as an authority on the development and evolution of mountain ranges; Fellow of the Royal Society, Wollaston Medal and Penrose Medal recipient, member of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• Sandra K. Ellston, Shakespearean scholar, former chair of Undergraduate Studies in English and co-director of the Humanities Center
• Joachim Frank (1976–present), German-American computational biologist, School of Public Health; investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at New York State's Wadsworth Center; elected in 2006 to National Academy of Sciences and named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
• Gordon G. Gallup (1975–present), evolutionary psychologist; developed the mirror test
• M. E. Grenander (1948–89), professor of English, authority on Ambrose Bierce, and benefactor of the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives
• George R. Goldner, art historian, former Drue Heinz Chairman of the Department of Drawings and Paints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Martha Hollander, poet and art historian^[41]
• Pierre Joris (1992–present), poet, translator, anthologist; renowned translator of Paul Celan
• Leonard Kastle (1978–89), director of The Honeymoon Killers and notable opera composer of Deseret and The Pariahs
• William Kennedy (1974–present), 1984 winner of Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for novel Ironweed; taught creative writing and journalism as UAlbany instructor from 1974 to 1982, thereafter full professor of creative writing; in 1983, awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, part of which went to UAlbany's New York State Writers Institute
• Boris Korenblum, Soviet-Israeli-American mathematician, specializing in mathematical analysis^[42]
• Richard Lachmann, sociologist, specialist in comparative historical sociology, and professor^[43]
• Scott Lilienfeld, author
• Michael J. Malbin (1990–present), political science, and expert on campaign finance; former speech writer to Richard B. Cheney
• Jon Mandle (1994–present), philosopher who works on issues of political theory and global justice; author of What's Left of Liberalism? An Interpretation and Defense of Justice as Fairness and Global Justice: An Introduction
• Ron McClamrock (1992–present), philosopher who works at the intersection of phenomenology and psychology; author of Existential Cognition: Minds in the World
• Toni Morrison (1985–89), author, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author (works include Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon)
• Paul Pimsleur (1970–76), French-American linguist, educator, and researcher of the language acquisition process, and author of Pimsleur Language Series
• Mark Raider, historian and University of Cincinnati professor of modern Jewish history
• Herman Prins Salomon, Dutch-American linguist and historian
• Vincent Schaefer, founder and longtime director of the Atmospheric Science Research Center (ASRC); discovered the first successful method of cloud seeding, with dry ice
• Richard E. Stearns, emeritus (1978–2000), Turing Award winner for computational complexity theory
• Bonnie Steinbock (1977–2014), philosopher, expert on reproductive ethics, and former chair of philosophy department
• Bernard Vonnegut (1967–85), atmospheric scientist known for expertise in the physics of lightning; as a colleague of Vincent Schaefer at General Electric in 1946, discovered silver iodide method of cloud-seeding; older brother of author Kurt Vonnegut
• David Wills (1998–2013), translator of Jacques Derrida

The followings persons have led what is now the University at Albany:^[44][45]

More information No., Image ...

No.	Image	Executive	Term start	Term end	Ref.
Principals of New York State Normal School (1844–1867)
1		David Perkins Page	December 13, 1844	January 1, 1848
2		George R. Perkins	January 1, 1848	July 8, 1852
3		Samuel B. Woolworth	September 20, 1852	February 1, 1856
4		David Cochran	February 25, 1856	December 8, 1864
5		Oliver Avery	December 1864	January 8, 1867
Acting		Samuel B. Woolworth	February 19, 1867	April 3, 1867
Presidents of New York State Normal School (1867–1890)
6		Joseph Alden	April 3, 1867	May 23, 1882
7		Edward P. Waterbury	June 22, 1882	August 8, 1889
Acting		Albert N. Husted	September 13, 1889	October 29, 1889
Presidents of New York State Normal College (1890–1914)
8		William J. Milne	October 29, 1889	September 4, 1914
Presidents of New York State College for Teachers (1914–1959)
Acting		Leonard Blue	September 11, 1914	February 1, 1915
9		Abram Roy Brubacher	February 1, 1915	August 23, 1939
10		John M. Sayles	1939–1947
Acting		Milton Nelson	March 1947	July 1949
11		Evan R. Collins	July 1949	June 30, 1969
Presidents of the State University of New York at Albany (1962–1986)
Acting		Allan A. Kuusisto	July 1, 1969	June 30, 1970
12		Louis T. Benezet	July 1, 1970	June 30, 1975
13		Emmett B. Fields	July 1, 1975	July 1977
14		Vincent O'Leary	1977	June 30, 1990
Presidents of the University at Albany, SUNY (1986–present)
Acting		Judith A. Ramaley	July 1, 1990	July 31, 1990
15		H. Patrick Swygert	August 1, 1990	June 30, 1995
Acting		Karen R. Hitchcock	July 1, 1995	November 7, 1996
16			November 8, 1996	January 31, 2004	[46]
OIC		Carlos E. Santiago	February 1, 2004	February 23, 2004
Interim		John R. Ryan	February 24, 2004	January 31, 2005	[47]
17		Kermit L. Hall	February 1, 2005	August 13, 2006[a]	[48][49]
OIC		Susan Herbst	August 14, 2006	October 2, 2007	[50]
OIC		George M. Philip	October 3, 2007	November 26, 2007	[51]
Interim			November 27, 2007	June 16, 2009	[52]
18			June 16, 2009	December 31, 2012	[53][54]
19		Robert J. Jones	January 2, 2013	September 23, 2016	[55][56]
Interim		James R. Stellar	September 24, 2016	September 17, 2017	[57]
20		Havidan Rodriguez	September 18, 2017	present	[58]

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